Almost two weeks on from their 2019 Hottest 100 celebrations, triple j have revealed the details of their next poll; the Hottest 100 of the Decade.
When triple j kicked off their Hottest 100 celebrations back in 1989, it was dubbed the Hot 100 and intended to serve as a way for listeners to share their favourite songs of all time. After Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” won two years in a row until it was relegated to #2 by Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991, the station retooled the countdown, bringing it back in 1994 with listeners allowed to vote for their favourite songs of the previous year.
Since then, the countdown has grown into the world’s biggest of its kind, with their recent 2019 countdown attracting a record 3,211,596 million votes.
However, while the yearly polls are the best-known, the station hasn’t been scared of taking a look back at musical history as a whole. While 1998 and 2009 featured additional all-time countdowns, 2011 saw listeners vote on their favourite Aussie albums, and 2013 saw a poll limited to songs from the previous 20 years.
With the Hottest 100 turning 30 in 2019, questions were raised as to whether it might be time for another retrospective countdown, with triple j providing the answer last month when they announced the Hottest 100 of the Decade.
Now, the station has unveiled all the pertinent details for the upcoming poll, revealing that listeners’ favourite song of the 2010s will be announced on Saturday, March 14th. Voting is set to open from 9am AEST on Tuesday, February 11th, and will run until 12pm on Monday, March 9th, leaving fans with just a few days to start knuckling down on their favourite tunes of the last 10 years.
Presumably, eligible songs will only be those released between January 1st, 2010, and December 31st, 2019, meaning that some songs to have polled in the 2010 countdown (including Ou Est Le Swimming Pool’s #3-placing “Dance the Way I Feel”) might not be able to make it in due to some release date technicalities.
However, this will undoubtedly serve as an interesting look back at the last ten years, with history indicating that we’re set to see appearances from tunes that were either overlooked upon their release, or didn’t quite crack the top 100.
Similarly, there’s no word yet as to whether this countdown will see triple j continue their recent tradition of counting down the top 200 songs as well, but it appears that only time will tell.
triple j Hottest 100 of the Decade Key Dates:
9am AEST, Tuesday, February 11th: Voting opens
12pm AEDT, Monday, March 9th: Voting closes
Saturday, March 14th: Hottest 100 of the Decade countdown
